Vacation Part 3!

Zoo time, starting with the zebras! Mom, Dad, Carl, Jenny, and Landon met us at the Hogle Zoo on Saturday. Erica and Sean stayed in Butte, which was lucky for us. Erica picked up Laney, paid for her, and stayed the night with her. I was very thankful for that!

Not sure what this pose is here, but these 3 are always happy to be together. Carter was our guide as you can see. He was slightly obsessed with the map!

A quick picture of everyone before we got started. Carl and Jenny flew out from Salt Lake the next morning. They also bought our dog a Thundershirt from the new Petco in Butte. We put it on her last night, and she loved it! Thanks again!

The elephants are so awesome. Mother and baby were having a little snack while we watched.

Carter giving us some facts. He's very animated when talking about animals.

Another family picture. Poor Teague was exhausted. I was holding him very awkwardly too - oops!

We had a family picture on these stairs 3 years ago. We tried another one! Landon took this for us. I think we were maybe looking at Mom's camera here, but I still like it.

Some huge rhinos - Princess and George. Not sure which is which!

An otter swimming underwater - they are so cute! They were rubbing themselves on logs in the sun.

4 little otters!

Leopard seals just chilling in the sun.

This sea lion was huge!

Ave will always pose for the camera!

Two grizzly bears having a snooze.

This one popped up right when I was taking a picture.

We stopped for a little snack. Teague informed me that this is happy face! He was in a much better mood after some ice cream!

I caught these 3 off guard I guess. I think Ave's ice cream hit the side of Landon's face accidentally!

A snow leopard sleeping in a tree. Those paws are so huge!

Teague had to sit on the Mom and the baby. He can be such a cutie when he wants to be!

This was Carter's favorite animal at the Zoo. The Siberian Tiger was huge!

One more pit stop while their Daddy bought tickets for the carousel.

Teague asked Kyle to come with him. He picked the polar bear.

Carter and Landon rode next to eachother of course!

Ave was right behind them on the giraffe!

The reptiles are always kind of creepy but interesting. Here is Landon in front of a red tailed Boa (which of course, you can't see).

For some reason, this was one of Ave's favorite things, a very colorful fowl!

The sloth is cute. He was sleeping the day away.

Teague warned us all to stay back from the Rattlesnake.

We went back to the Rocky Shores one more time. I just love the seals.

This sea lion was barking up a storm. We could hear him from across the Zoo!

We found the giraffe finally. There were a couple of them in the giraffe barn instead of out with the  zebras and ostriches. I always think they are so neat to look at.

Teague got a Crocodile from the gift shop that he named Crocky. He's not usually a stuffed animal kind of guy, but he loves it!

We went swimming one more time after a tasty dinner (thanks again Carl and Jenny - hope your flight went well!). Here is Carter staring at me through his cannonball! I love how his feet are just entering the water!

A jumping Lando too! They had a lot of fun!

The next day we went to Scheels one more time with Mom, Dad, and Landon. It was a nice place to visit before lunch. Then we hit the road. The upper level of Scheels has all these Photo opportunity places!

A monster truck!

These two! Look at those faces!

I guess Teague likes the skunk! Carter was off getting new batting gloves with Kyle.

And we're off! Ave was asleep right away. I like how her lips are pursed together. We had so much fun. We'll have to do it another 3 years!

Vacation Part 2

The second day we were there, we did some shopping at some outlet stores. Needless to say, I skipped the Michael Kors and Coach stores and shopped at the Childrens Place, Gymboree, Carter's and Osh Kosh B'Gosh. Kyle bought a ton of chocolate from "The Chocolate Shop". The kids also got new shoes at the Nike outlet. $20 each! You can see them in these pictures from the Children's Museum. We went there 3 years ago and loved it. We loved it this time too!

The Beehive is always fun. All these interlocking tubes are pretty neat.

We had to ask them if they wanted to see the rest of the place. They were having too much fun!

The construction zone! Teague is reeling up some "concrete" blocks.

Carter helped him unload.

Avers used the crane.

They had a water zone, a little kid sized house with a tiny fridge, little couches, little ironing board etc... So cute!

Teague had a lot of fun spraying water everywhere!

The little supermarket is always cool. They have tons of little shelves, a produce section, and a bakery. Plus working checkout stands!

Teague was very into buying honey and bread!

The farm section is cool too. There is a giant plastic horse they can sit on. Plus you can pull plastic vegetables out of the "dirt", load them into the tractor, and take them to the market.

Teague really liked the horse!

Carter tried out the rock wall. What kid doesn't love to climb?

Watch out! The police are coming!

The upstairs had tons of scientific stuff - a whole magnet wall and a wind tunnel. Ave loved the news set though! This would be an interesting morning show right here!

You could play video behind them, and they could see themselves on the monitor and the big TV screens. Ave is quite the actress!

Very nice saluting

This hurricane simulator was crazy! Kyle and Carter went first, then I took the other two in. It lasts about a minute, but the wind goes up to 79.9 mph!

I missed pictures of the Bob the Builder exhibit, which was really neat. That's when we found out our dog had been hit by a car back in Butte. Luckily, we found out minutes later that she was going to be fine. The animal hospital treated her for shock and pain. She bit through her tongue, had a few scratches, and is going to be sore for a week or so. Carter, Ave, and I were pretty teary for awhile, but we were so glad to hear she was okay. After that, we headed out to the Life Flight helicopter.

This thing was so amazing. It connected to a little hospital, where you could press screens and do X-Rays and MRIs on the patients. There was also a weather center where you could talk to the pilot.

Time to go! One picture of all 3 before we left. We ate at the California Pizza Kitchen after this and listened to some live music! Both were very good!

There was an enormous Scheels store by our hotel. It, of course, had a ferris wheel inside! We all rode it.

I got one picture of Kyle and Carter as before they went up.